Quote:
Originally Posted by 83w126
Thanks for the suggestions, I will have to see if any of that helps. I really wish mercedes had made more diesels with manual transmissions.
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Mercedes builds what most _new_ car buyers want, what is the year / model of new MB cars have you bought? What is the typical new MB buyer looking for?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 83w126
I hate the idea of the transmission being a $5k box of magic that you never know when it might fail and make the car basically worthless, but unfortunatly thats pretty much the way it is for a car this old.
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This confirms that you don't have a fundamental understanding of this or other automatic transmissions. Yes, the automatic transmission by far is the most complex system in a modern car in terms of mechanical engineering and shift control design but, is isn't magic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 83w126
I think I must have selectively forgotten everything I have read about how awful these transmissions are when I liked the car othrerwise, but that obviously wasn't a good choice.
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The 1996 transmissions had a controller and valve body refit in the early days and circa 98 a bushing was changed to a needle bearing, needle thrust washers / planet gear thrust washers gained a tab to prevent rotation ( and the resultant wear of the planetary. )
These upgrades are part of having 100's of thousands units in the field. There is absolulty no way every possible failure point can be discovered in the design stage and still result in a affordable car.